The Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Professor Kayode Adebowale has lamented the fall in the standards of sports development in Nigeria.
Speaking yesterday while receiving a contingent of the Nigeria Olympic Committee who paid a courtesy visit to his office.
The VC described the disheartening lack of many functional sports academies in the country even as he insisted that Nigerian athletes are not excelling due to poor state of facilities.
He noted that sports encourage the total development of an individual, adding that the sports academies would have helped to identify talents even at very young ages.
The VC suggests that Nigerian Universities needed to have sports academies but would require a lot of funds to establish them.
According to the Vice-Chancellor, universities provide the grounds for the development of sports talents and recalled that many students in the past were offered university admissions because of their sporting prowess.
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Sport is very important and that the relevance cannot be overemphasized with due regards, it must be encouraged and promoted in all Universities as this is a prominent state of supporting and moving it forward to the net level he added .
National Daily Newspaper gathered that Secretary General of the NOC, Tunde Popoola pointed out that many Nigerian athletes are from universities, said it was important for the Directors of Sports of Nigerian Universities to be acquainted with sports at the Olympic Games in order to bring out the best in their athletes.
The visiting team was in the University of Ibadan for a three – day conference organized by the International Olympic Committee in collaboration with the Nigerian Universities Games Association for Directors of Sports and Head Coaches of Nigerian Universities, National Daily Newspaper gathered.